Lotus secures £10 mil grant from the UK government

We haven’t heard much about Lotus lately, but here’s a piece of good news for the DRB-Hicom subsidiary. The UK’s Regional Growth Fund (RGF) has awarded Lotus £10.44 million in grants, which will be used for R&D of products, along with staff training. Lotus is expected to create 313 new full time jobs to support production over the coming years.

UK Business Secretary, Vince Cable MP visited Lotus’ Norfolk headquarters yesterday, where he toured the engineering and factory facilities and formally announced the grant to Lotus management. The RGF is a flexible and competitive £3.2 billion fund operating across England from 2011 to 2017. It supports projects that are using private sector investment to create economic growth and sustainable employment.

The grant is a further boost for Lotus, following a £100 million investment by DRB-Hicom which has allowed the company to enhance its engineering, productivity, efficiency and quality. Lotus is also recruiting for more than 130 new jobs, previously announced in July.

Lotus COO Aslam Farikullah said: “This grant is part of a wider strategy for Lotus created to ensure we thrive and grow. We are responding to increased global demand for our cars and engineering consultancy services and this grant will help to position Lotus at the forefront of global automotive innovation.

“We have very exciting plans for our sports cars and it’s a very positive move for Lotus that we’re in a position to create new jobs and to significantly contribute to Britain’s automotive industry. The team here at Lotus have worked very hard to secure this grant and every employee is playing their part in the stability, growth and future success of our company.”

We too paid a recent visit to Hethel to try Lotus’ latest model, the Exige S Roadster. Click here for the review.

Danny Tan loves driving as much as he loves a certain herbal meat soup, and sweet engine music as much as drum beats. He has been in the auto industry since 2006, previously filling the pages of two motoring magazines before joining this website. Enjoys detailing the experience more than the technical details.

The point is how to launch the production cars after spend a lot in R&D.
Lotus been consumed a lot of money for R&D purpose, just look at those 2010 concept cars such as Esprit, Elan, Elite, Elise and Eterne.
These cars are great, why not make it launched? But keep standing on the same point, repeating R&D again for new concept cars, again?

Just close shop lah. The 10 miilion pounds is just nice for the directors to get paid and their hefty and fat allowances flying business class and staying in five star hotels.

Company so shaky also, but directors live the lives or the rich and famous. If not for Proton, Lotus would have died long ago. And if not for the 30 million people paying overpriced cars in Malaysia for 30 years, Proton would have gone bust. So each and every Malaysian have been supporting Lotus indirectly.

Time to close shop. Nobody talks about Lotus anymore. Once the Lotus Esprit Turbu was everybody’s pin up beside the Lamborghini Countach. Today, Lotus is not in anybody’s pinup. Neither it is in the mind of anybody. The company is a total failure. Just close shop.

This not your money. DRB is not own by Malaysian government. And Britain government have brain, not make decision like to spend for lunch. We only read at the bottom. We dont seat in their meeting. We dont know details. So before you bash because it is Proton, think a little bit.

Sick of your negative comment. Automobile is a very competitive market… Lotus models are old and need renewed/refreshed… Do you know how much cost involved to produce a completely new model? GBP10mil is nothing… DRB-Hicom have had some easy money from some of their ‘business’… I hope these money are utilised well and do some good and help build up this brand again… and for Proton too…!

The solution for them to bounce back is simple, open a manufacturing facility in China especially for the Chinese market.. expand their dealerships in china, gain as much money and then expand and enhance their presence in North America and Europe.. no point of them fighting a losing battle in NA and EU.. retreat, strengthen the product, and comeback with a vengeance.. not gung-ho all the way..

It’s good to obtain the fund injection from UK government. However the expectation of the public on DRB to turn around Lotus and Proton is much to be desired. Most have lost faith. DRB excels in monopolistic ventures. As a retailer having to compete in the open market, they are too slow and too risk averse. In a conglomerate like that, everyone is covering their back hence the snail paced decision making process. The main shareholder should do a major revamp and shake up of the top management otherwise DRB will never change and be competitive. All are sleeping there with meeting, reporting and blame culture. Ideas are plentiful but they forgot the operational and sustainability part which are key to success and usually the most difficult. Modenas our nation motorcycle venture and pride is dying, Honda and Suzuki is managed by the Japanese hence in profit. Audi is a monopolistic venture hence in profit for now, until Audi AG takes over its distributorship. DRB top management just don’t have what it takes. It’s very pathetic and sad.

In all honesty, I doubt Lotus is a lousy car manufacturer. With Lotus under Proton’s wings, they’ve not only suffered reliability problems but a big blow to their reputation. Their engineering skills have always been magnificent. Without Proton, Lotus would’ve done better; especially with parents like BMW or VW.

So for those of you who keeps dissing Lotus, stop it. You don’t even know what they’ve achieved and Proton is the bottleneck of their growth. They’re a small company, mind you.

Yes, Proton should sell it. Not because it is useless to Proton but Proton not being able to manage themselves. Lotus has wild potential but Proton being their owners doesn’t cut it for them. I’d rather DRB investing $100M into Proton instead and allow Lotus to be under a better parentage.

Back in the 80s, Lotus faced a big debt with the fledgling economy. GM tried saving Lotus but sold it later on to a private company also owning Bugatti at that time. And at that decade, small private companies used to own small car manufacturers like these and without a doubt barely had capital to revitalize the car lineup. In 1996, many tried to avoid Lotus due to their aging cars and low profitability level. Proton however acquired them. It was the economic crisis again. BMW had trouble with Rover and VW tried to dispose off car manufacturers that weren’t making income. Yes, Lotus would’ve died if it weren’t for Proton but with Proton holding them until now, it’s gonna hurt both the manufacturers with Lotus having impeded growth and Proton, losing money.

Ayecaramba,
Lotus is just a tuner and it does not suffer reliability issues cos its using a TOYOTA engine.
What kinda magnificent engineering skills when Lotus
does not have any experience building their own engines?
And Lotus was owned by GM and never BMW or VW.
Talk is cheap but please read b4 u shoot cos
it reflects your low IQ and EQ !!

Sorry, how old are you? Lotus is a tuner? Pfft, look at your pathetic self. Lotus relied on Toyota for their engines because OF LOWER COSTS! Reliability would be better too when using Toyota’s engines. When Lotus faced difficulties during the 80s, they asked Toyota for parts that can be used in their cars. In exchange, THEY DEVELOPED THE SUPRA WITH TOYOTA. And just so you know, if you even pin point me for not even reading about Lotus, look at yourself first. Even Wikipedia showed the engines Lotus built themselves. There are more engines Lotus TUNED AND ENHANCED. Go look up Lotus Carlton. Look at the engine done by Lotus. Also, go see the chassis of the cars that Lotus have developed and you’ll be amazed. You don’t like Lotus. Don’t regret when the Chinese snap Lotus up and create cars that will be better than Proton. Manufacturers are interested in Lotus but DRB isn’t willing to sell.

You have no idea what you are talking about. They have tons of engineering skils.

Many car manufacturers asked Lotus for help in developing cars. Even Nissan had to ask Lotus for help with GT-R suspension systems. That’s how Lotus makes money. They also purposely make simple lightweight sportscar because even the British wants Lotus to stay with Colin Chapman’s tradition. Dany Bahar got sacked mainly because of his ridiculous plan.

Lotus have massive experience building their own engine, gained during 70s and 80s. At that time they built “Charge cooler” turbocharged 4 cylinders and even twin turbo 3.5V8 for the Esprit V8. No other car manufacturer knows how to build a proper and reliable turbo engine at that time.

They also did the Campro, 200hp 2.2V6 and 300hp 3.0V6 for Proton (cancelled big Campro?). and I’m sure you heard Campro CFE. That was done by Lotus too (original tuning 170hp, detuned to 140hp for RON88 compatibility IIRC).

They did maaaaany things. Check out their engineering dept. website and don’t be a freaking ignorant.

When Mclaren started to build MP4-12C yet to know did their super car works it onot. They just build their car in an old factory. After the place yet enough to use to build MP4-12C and P1 only they invest £100 million into new facility factory.

But DRB Lotus, yet get anything d invest £100 million into it. Did they really think their car is pod enough to fight with Super brand?

It’s not about design, it’s about production costs. Proton have many impressive designs of their own (even Lotus Europa S and some others is designed and MEANT TO BE a Proton) but more curves means more cost for each body panel. That is a big no-no for a Proton car since Proton have small market volume right now.

Remember when Gen-2 came out in 2004? It had curves no other cars had. It looked almost like a concept. And that costs a lot for panel production. They also have big market at that time, then flopped because of lousy QC and materials. If only Proton had them right, Proton would become Toyota today.

DRB is injecting quite a lot of money into Proton now to fix that so let’s wait until the EMAS-based small car comes out in 2014.

Drb will get their own people from Pos Malaysia or Alam Flora to run Lotus!!! I personally pity Lotus as they are dying under the mis-management and no direction and ego manner of their new bosses @ drb. at least last time under DSZ they had plans for new cars.

Lotus is dying and without direction under Potong, look at Buggati, Jaquar, Bentley and RollRoyce since taken over by bigger companies flourished becoz they can use their engine parts, platforms etc…Potong can offer wat engine or platform? all in the name of pride

i heard proton engineers are very free as DRB hold most of the projects. It is expensive when your design go better, but you still can control the price if your so depending on the crony vendors. Find new source vendors.. Proton can come up with proper direction, until then will be like this.. loosing all money.

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